China’s President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have pledged to deepen their cooperation, according to state media, as Xi made a rare visit to Pyongyang.
During a summit late on Monday, Xi told Kim he aimed to drive progress in ties, and both leaders agreed to strive for closer strategic communication, the official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
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Kim, for his part, affirmed that North Korea and China will maintain their friendship as “the most important top-priority strategic work”, the KCNA reported.
Kim called Xi “the greatest state guest”, saying he views the fact that Xi chose North Korea as a destination for his first foreign travel this year as “the most encouraging support” to North Korea, according to KCNA.
Kim also reiterated Pyongyang’s support for Beijing’s “one China principle”, a reference to Beijing’s official position that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. Kim and Xi also discussed international and regional issues and reached a broad agreement on strengthening strategic coordination to safeguard their shared interests, KCNA said.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported on Monday that Xi expressed China’s willingness to expand cooperation in a wide range of areas, including trade, agriculture, construction and technology.
Xi said the two countries should strengthen strategic cooperation and firmly safeguard their respective sovereignty and security interests, according to the report.
‘A new historical starting point’
It was Xi’s first visit to North Korea in seven years. Xi and Kim last met in Beijing in September after viewing a military parade alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and other foreign leaders.
Kim welcomed Xi with a red carpet, guard of honour and a 21-gun salute. The two leaders, accompanied by their wives and senior officials, attended a performance of Chinese and North Korean songs before Kim hosted a banquet for the Chinese delegation.
Xi marked the occasion – the 65th anniversary of the neighbours’ friendship treaty – by declaring that relations had reached “a new historical starting point”, according to KCNA.
It was not immediately clear if the leaders plan further talks on Tuesday, when South Korean media said Xi is likely to visit the Sino-Korean Friendship Tower in Pyongyang, which commemorates Chinese soldiers who died in the Korean War in the 1950s.
The two sides often describe their relationship as one forged in blood, in a reference to the Chinese intervention in the Korean War. But mistrust has strained ties in recent years, particularly after China backed international sanctions against North Korea’s nuclear programme.
“China is now trying to reassert its influence over a strategically important partner, which has increasingly turned to Russia for oil and aid in return for North Korean soldiers and weapons [in the war on Ukraine],” said Al Jazeera’s Jack Barton, reporting from Seoul.
Kim is eager to keep China close despite his warming ties with Russia, he said.
“Kim no doubt knows that Russian leverage will probably run out if and when the Ukraine war ends because Russia will no longer need North Korean troops or weapons,” Barton added. “Survival for North Korea depends on China.”
Experts said Xi would use China’s position as North Korea’s dominant trading partner to keep Pyongyang within its orbit.
“The North Korean military-industrial complex is now much more intertwined with the Russian one than the Chinese one,” he told Al Jazeera, describing the visit as an attempt by Xi “to remind the North Koreans who their main trading partner is”.
Young added that Xi was also likely to use the trip to expand Chinese tourism to North Korea, as part of what he called “red tourism” based on fostering revolutionary nostalgia tied to the Korean War era.
Nuclear tensions
Separately, North Korean media did not say whether Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme or relations with the United States figured in Xi-Kim talks.
Before Xi’s arrival, Kim announced plans to increase nuclear production capacity exponentially. North Korea’s weapons programme has driven closer defence ties between the US, Japan and South Korea, something that Beijing has opposed.
Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, noted the conspicuous absence of denuclearisation from the agenda. Yu said the state media reports in Beijing and Pyongyang show that the two leaders are sending a clear message that their relationship is stronger than ever.
“North Korea is also a priority for Xi, given that he’s hosted dozens of world leaders this year, including Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. But this is the first time he’s actually left China to meet another leader. Both sides also talked about deeper cooperation. One specific line by Chinese state media really said it all, that China is going to help North Korea move towards modernisation,” she said.
“China is really using the carrot more than the stick approach, moving closer to Pyongyang and emphasising a warming of ties at a time when it’s increasing its rivalry with the United States.”